Member-only story
The Pandemic Will End. How Will We Support the Covid Long-Haulers?
Mutual aid is one way to help the millions who’ll be living with disability and chronic illness
The COVID-19 crisis has been covered by many angles in the past year. Most recently, we’ve seen a lot of anniversary pieces to commemorate the first shutdowns in the United States. The New York Times released an article gathering the quotes, photos, and memories entitled “The Pandemic Became Real When…” which received over two thousand responses from readers. News outlets have covered the death toll, the haphazard re-openings and their fall out, and improvements in vaccine roll out.
Something I notice about the about the coverage so far, though, is that it seems to pre-suppose a neat beginning, middle, and eventual end to the pandemic, especially as vaccinations rates rise and we approach something that will eventually resemble herd immunity. However, for many of those who have contracted COVID, there may not be such a pat end date in mind.
According to Harvard Health Publishing, somewhere around 50%-80% of people who contracted COVID are known as “long haulers,” that is, they continue to experience COVID symptoms at least three months after the onset of COVID-19. Symptoms include fatigue, aches and pains, brain fog…
